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S: Johannsen Family Story

FC: Our Family Story

1: This book is dedicated to Ed who has always treated me like his daughter. I remember the first time I met Ed; I had went out to the farm so that I could ride with Ed & Pat to Fort Hays State for a parent's weekend to see Richard. Richard had warned me that if his dad gave me crap to give it right back to him. Well when I got to the house and rang the doorbell, Ed answered the door only wearing his boxers. I thought I had arrived way too early and was thinking maybe I should just wait outside for a while; well Ed just invited me in like this was perfectly natural. Then when we went to get into the pickup he asked if I wanted to sit next to him, I knew right then what Richard had meant by him giving me crap. I ended up having more fun on that drive to Hays. I also want to thank Pat for all the pictures and stories. She was always more than willing to help me out even when she said I was taxing her brain a bit. And I want to thank everyone in the family for all of their help, I had a lot of fun putting this book together and I hope everyone enjoys it. Love, Laura June 16, 2011 | Edward William Johannsen March 14, 1936 - January 22, 2009

3: John Frederick Johannsen was raised in Germany; he departed from Hamburg, Germany on January 6, 1907 on the ship Kaiserin Auguste Victoria and arrived in New York, New York on January 17, 1907. He had several relatives that had made this trip before him, one of which was his sister Wiebke. She came over six years prior to him and was living with their uncle Jacob Johannsen in Mulberry, Kansas. She later married Joseph Gobl and had two children. John arrived in Kansas on January 25, 1907; he was living for a while with his cousin Jacob Engelland and his famly in Rice County. Then he was living with and also working for D.R. Gossman, this is how John met his first wife Lena. He was 38, when they were married on February 22, 1922. They had three children, John Richard, Robert Arnold and Pauline Marie. Their daughter died at birth and his wife soon followed. Leaving him with two sons to raise, so at the age of 51, John remarried to Helen Burke on January 10, 1935. To this union six children were born, Edward William, John Laurence, Mary Jane and Mildred Jean twins, Shirley Ann and finally Jean Marie. John Richard his oldest son passed away at the age of thirteen years and Mildred Jean died at birth. We do not know anything about John's life in Germany or his reason for coming to America; he was a quiet man and never talked about it. When he wasn't farming he spent a lot of his free hours out in his work shop. His shop was located in the south end of their round top. One of the things he loved was when his brother in law Louis Gossman would come over for a visit and they would speak in German. Helen would not like this very much at all because she always thought they were talking about her. Later in his life he was diagnosed with cancer, when he was a healthy man he weighed around 160 pounds at the end of his life he weighed a mere 87 pounds. He passed away in the Lyons District Hospital, at the age of 78 years, 5 months and 3 days. | Helen Marie Burke was raised on a farm that was called the O.K. Stock farm. It was south of Little River near where her grandparents Laurence and Kate Burke's original homestead was. Her parents were Edward Michael and Edith Pearl (Burtt) Burke. Four children were born to them, but two died at a very young age. Her brother Lawrence was almost three years older than she was. Besides her parents having a lot of farm ground, they also raised a lot of cattle and mules. One of the things her mother enjoyed was raising show horses, and riding them. Her father was one of the original board members of the Rockville Grade School - District #11, which opened in the fall of 1948. Her brother Lawrence married Thelma Vought on April 13, 1929 and later became the city of Little River's Marshall. Helen married Edgar Harold Mabry sometime in 1929, they lived in the city of Little River and he was a truck driver. Not for sure when they divorced. Later on she married John Johannsen and they lived south of Little River on a farm. One of the things Helen loved doing was raising cats, these were show cats. She would buy and sell them. She kept her cats in the chicken house. A fourth of the building was separated from the rest for the cats. The cats had access to the entire ceiling of the chicken house, there was straw up there. She had a lot of laying hens, and she would keep them until they got to a certain age and then she would have them butchered. She would have a new batch to replace them with. She would give eggs to the family and then sell the rest. She also loved dogs, two of which were house dogs. They were Chihuahuas named Peanuts and Brandy, they had little ranch style houses in the basement that they slept in. For an outside dog she had a German Shepard that was kept in her fenced in yard around the house. If you were already in the yard when she let the dog off of its chain it did care if you were in the yard, but if it was loose in the yard and you tried to enter in the yard you did not come in. Helen also liked working some in her flower gardens and she did a little bit of embroidery work.

5: The schools Ed attended: 1st thru 6th grade was at the Libby school - from Ed and Pat's corner heading east, it sat at the half mile line on the north side of the road on property that now belongs to Van Horn. It was built in July and August of 1874, first term for the school was October 1874. It was built with one big room and two little ante-rooms to hang wraps, caps and lunches. 7th & 8th grade was at the Rockville school. High school was at Little River - coming from country schools, High school was a little over whelming for Ed at first. | Some of Ed's High school antics... Ed and his friends would put oil in their windshield wiper fluid tanks, then unclip the hose and point it down so it would spray onto the manifold. Then they would drive up and down Main Street of Little River and they would pump it and make it smoke like crazy. On Halloween they would tip over peoples outhouses, and then the people would fall into the holes. They would drive their cars on the sidewalks of Main Street and then they would get chased out of town. | Libby School Ed is in the back row. | Rockville School - picture taken for school year 1948-49 | 7th grade March 1949

8: Pat's parents | William Leroy Bemis Born: Wednesday, August 21, 1912 Nickerson, KS Died: September 1, 1999 - Lyons, KS Dorothy Mae Starr Born: Wednesday, September 22, 1915 Chanute, KS Died: October 12, 2001 - Lyons, KS Married: September 5, 1936 By a judge in Greatbend, KS | Dorothy always said this was her wedding picture, because it was taken not long after they were married.

9: George Bemis and the Jesse Starr farms were about two miles from each other. The Starr farm sat south and west of Raymond. Leroy Bemis went to work for Jesse Starr on his farm when he was in his 20's; there he met their daughter Dorothy. They were married September 5, 1936 by a judge in Greatbend, KS. When Leroy and Dorothy were first married they lived in a house that sat on Jesse Starr's farm, it was a moved in one bedroom house that was very small, but nice. Pat remembers Christmas times at her grandparents' house, she said all her cousins would be there and they would always have a huge meal and there always would be this huge Christmas tree that would go all the way to the ceiling, she said that Grandpa would always disappear and Santa Clause would come. One Christmas Pat and her cousins all got little red chairs, she said she still has hers. One of the other things she remembers is when she was four or five years old, her Grandpa would be sitting on the porch and she would run out of the house and let the screen door slam in Shirley's face. Grandpa would always tell her if she did that one more time she was going to get a spanking, he never did spank her though. The second house they rented was three quarters of a mile west and north of Jesse Starr's farm, the landlords name was Ivan Newell. Leroy was still working for Jesse Starr at this time. Jesse Starr passed away in April of 1942 and Lillie Mae moved off of the farm. Another rental that they had lived in was when Leroy was working for Carl and Ruth Wright, it was a cook shack. This place was located around Zook, Kansas. And then sometime in 1939 when Pat was only two years old, Leroy and his brother Byron spent two weeks shearing sheep around Larned, Kansas to make some extra money. The reason they moved so often was | Leroy made one dollar a day and he went where there was work. He also hunted and fished so there would be food for his family. Then they moved to the Domingo rental it sat on a quarter of ground on the Rice and Stafford County lines. It sat right next to the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge. Leroy and Dorothy ended up having four children, Pat, Shirley, Gary and Bill. Leroy raised some cattle and farmed the ground with a small tractor and a six foot one way. Dorothy raised a lot of chickens; they ate the chickens and sold about two dozen eggs and half a can of cream a week for grocery money. They made electricity with a windmill that charged a 32 volt generator with 15 to 20 glass batteries that sat in a rack on the porch. If they were careful this made enough electricity for the house. In 1950 Leroy decided they were going to move so that their oldest daughter could go to High School. So they move to Saxman. Leroy got a job at the Lyons Salt Plant, he worked there for 24 years and while he did that he also worked for Wilson Township maintaining roads. He retired from the salt plant when he was 62 years old but continued to work for the township. He was close to 80 years old when he retired from the township. He also mowed for the Saxman Church. He didn't have a very good retirement plan from the Salt Plant he was getting $130.00 a month and then he got his social security. They lived on a very tight budget; it was around $1000.00 per month. Dorothy not only kept up the house and had a very large garden to tend to, she also drove the school bus (which was their family car, they put a sign on the roof of the car that said school bus) and was the cook for the Saxman School. Pat said those kids in that school were very spoiled, because her mother who was an excellent cook would make them homemade meals and bread every day. Dorothy also cleaned the Saxman Church, and if you wanted to borrow tables or chairs from the church, she was the one you wanted to talk to.

11: The Schools Pat attended: Leroy Bemis, Pat's father worked for farmers so they moved a lot. So depending on how long her father worked for a farmer was how many yeas she went to that school. Her fifth grade year she was at Pleasant Valley School and she got an award for not being absent or tardy for the school year, this was in April of 1948. Pat said she was at the same school her fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades. The Pleasant Valley School was a one room school with a total of eleven students. Pat said her and Shirley would ride a horse to school every day. After she had graduated from eighth grade, her father decided they were moving to Saxman so that the kids would have the opportunity to go to high school. He did not want them to be like him and only go to 7th grade. Her father got a job at the Salt Plant in Lyons, since there was no bus to take Pat into Sterling to the high school she rode with him into Lyons and went to the Lyons high school. Saxman only had a school that went up to 8th grade. By the time the rest of her brothers and sister needed to go to high school there was a bus to take them to Sterling. Pat finished high school in Lyons. Pat said she also felt over whelmed by the high school; it was so much larger and had so many more students than she was used to. She said she was a wall flower, very shy and quite, and nobody knew her; she had two or three good friends. Pat said the only time she got into trouble was when she skipped school with Charles Ross, Bill Box and Earl Sallee to go McPherson to the May Day parade. They were told if they went they would have to make up time after school in the principal's office. | 7th grade - 12 yrs. | Lyons High School graduation Thursday, May 19, 1955

14: Ed and PatDating... | How they met: In June of 1954 Ed was working for his half brother Bob Johannsen on his farm, which was a quarter mile east of Saxman, Ed saw a girl walking along the side of the road and stopped to introduce himself. He told her it was her long legs and short shorts that made him stop. Dating: A lot of the times on dates they would go to the Drive-in that was in Lyons. The drive-in movie theater was on the west side of town, now there is a Church, FSA office, Health center and the Jail sitting there. All of their friends hung out at the drive-in. Sometimes they went out to eat at a place called Jack's Drive-in; it was greasy hamburgers and french fries. Pat said Ed loved her mother's cooking so if her mom offered he pulled his chair out in a hurry. Her mom's cooking and sour cream raisin pies are how her mother told Pat how she caught Ed. Ed's cars: The car Ed had when they were dating was a 1948 Chevrolet Fleetmaster; it was green with a white top. Ed wrecked this car when Doc Leonard pulled out in front of him. Ed took the ditch to avoid getting hit and ended up hitting a culvert, which totaled the car. This happened in Saxman over by the school. Thank goodness he did not get hurt; he then bought a gray 1953 Chevrolet Styleline, that had been used as a drivers Ed car. | 1948 Chevy Fleetmaster | 1952 Chevy Styleline

15: The Proposal: Ed kept asking and pursuing and gave her the ring on Christmas Day 1954 | She said, "Yes"

16: The Wedding... The wedding was on Friday, May 27, 1955. Ed and Pat were married at Reverend Lester C. Taylor's house in Sterling. He was the Minister at the United Presbyterian Church in Saxman and also a Professor at Sterling college. The dress that Pat wore was one she made; it was made of a real shear lavender colored material with machined embroidered flowers on it, with a lilac colored slip to go under it. She wore this dress to her high school graduation also since it was only a week before her wedding. Ed's suit was medium blue in color with a light blue tie. He also wore this suit for his high school graduation. | Best Man: Larry Johannsen Maid of Honor: Shirley Bemis | Mr. & Mrs. Edward William Johannsen

17: Wedding Reception | Pat's parents, Leroy and Dorothy Bemis had the wedding reception at their house in Saxman. The flowers for the reception were out of Dorothy's front yard, and they were American Beauty Red Roses. Pat said her mom had the most beautiful roses. Dorothy Bemis also made the wedding cake, it was a white cake. Udall was virtually destroyed by a tornado the day of their wedding, so because of that Saxman had no electricity all night. Pat said it rained hard all night also.The only light they had for the reception was from the light bar on her cousin Larry Zenor's camera. He took all of the pictures. Ed and Pat did not go on a honeymoon, Ed was a farmer and they had work to tend to. So they went home to their farm after the reception. | John, Helen, Ed & Pat Johannsen, Leroy & Dorothy Bemis

18: Ed and Pat in a two to three month period had three shivaree's done to them. They all were done to them late at night; Pat said it was 10:30pm to after 11:00pm. It was always done after they had gone to bed at night. The first time was by the Sunday school; they came by and got Ed and Pa up to play games. Pat said you were not allowed to get dressed; they had to stay in their pajamas. The second time was by the neighborhood; Pat had made some brownies during the day and someone took them up and put them in the attic. They also put something in the oven that spoiled and smelled. Pat said they had fun finding where the smell was coming from. And then they took all the labels off of the canned goods. For quite a while after this Ed and Pat did not know if they were going to be having corn for supper or peaches. John and Helen had stocked Ed and Pat's pantry before they got married, so there were a lot of canned goods. The Third time was by Ed's classmates. Ed had seventeen white and light blue dress shirts; ones that had to be starched and pressed that were hanging in the closet. They took all of these out of the closet and tied the sleeves together and strung them up like a close line in the house. Pat said she did not ever have that many shirts starched and ironed again. Then they loaded Ed and Pat up in a car in their pajamas and took them to Little River. Someone came up with a wheelbarrow, Pat had to get in it and Ed had to wheel her up and down Main Street of Little River. Pat was not thrilled about being in her pajamas doing this. Pat said Ed didn't mind the shivaree's, but she did not like them at all. She said she learned if she ever heard a lot of vehicles coming into the yard to grab your clothes and put them on quickly. | Shivaree fun?

19: Their house... | Ed and Pat lived in only one house their entire marriage, which is six miles south of Little River and a fourth mile west or less of his dad and mom's house. Ed's dad John Johannsen was friends or an acquaintance with Hank Colle. Hank built the house that Ed and Pat lived in, he used the plans from John Johannsen's house to build his house in 1931 or 32. Hank used silo staves for the walls of the house instead of framing it with lumber. He did this because it was cheaper to do. John bought the house from Hank in 1951 and rented it out until Ed got married in 1955. After Ed and Pat got married they tried to buy the house from John, but he would not sell it, he did not think they could afford it. So after Helen died they bought the house through the estate. Ed and Pat had to pay $45,000 for the rest of the quarter when the estate was settled. | The Dinette: Ed and Pat had a very compact kitchen; they had to pull the kitchen table out to be able to use it. And Pat would have to move the table to get to things. The table was cramped after having three children. It was even worse after the twins were born and got old enough to be sitting in their high chairs in the kitchen. So sometime in 1963 Ed decided he had just about pushed himself away from the table, and he needed to do something. So they had Delmar Lockridge build the dinette on They had a bar built where the table used to sit, which gave them a lot more counter space. The Mudroom: Sometime in the 1970's Ed wanted to build a mudroom on to the house, Pat did not want it; she thought it would ruin the looks of the house. Well after it was done and they started using it, Pat says she just loves it.

20: First Child: Cynthia Lea Johannsen Born: Wednesday, March 7, 1956 at 3:45pm Height & weight: 8lbs. 5oz. 18 inches long Where: The old Lyons Hospital Physician: Dr. L.J. Beyer Pat said it was a very easy pregnancy, but being her first child she was scared to death. She had four hours of labor, two of which she slept. This was also the same doctor who had delivered Ed. | 1 month | 6 months | 1 year | 1 year

22: Second Child: Kenneth Edward Johannsen Born: Friday, April 19, 1957 at 10:10pm Height & weight: 7lbs. 11oz. 19inches long Where: The old Lyons Hospital Physician: Dr. L.J. Beyer Pat said this also was an easy pregnancy; Kenny was a longer thinner child. He was born two weeks early and it was on Good Friday. This was the same doctor that delivered Cindy and Ed. | 5 months | 1 month | 1 year | 18 months

24: Third Child: Terri Lynn Johannsen Born: Friday, September 11, 1959 at 4:15pm Height & weight: 9lbs. 10oz. 17 inches long Where: Lyons Hospital ( the new hospital on Clark Street) Physician: Dr. L.J. Beyer This child was one month overdue, and Pat was in labor for hours; she was exhausted, and the doctor finally had to pull the baby out. This was not a very easy pregnancy; Pat spent the last month in bed because they thought she might loose the baby. Well when Pat was pregnant with Terri, Dr. Beyer was 75 years old and he told Pat that they must have miscalculated the date of delivery, because no baby was ever an overdue baby. When he was delivering Terri he realized right then and there she was an overdue baby, because she had long fingernails and long eyelashes and was very large. He apologized to Pat and said this was his first time with an overdue baby. He was also the doctor that had delivered Ed, Cindy and Kenny. | 1 year | 1 year | 2 months | 1 1/2 years - look who got new shoes

25: 2 years | 3 years | 2 years - couldn't get this peanut to smile | 4 years | 12 years - 1971 | 6 years

26: Twins... | The fourth pregnancy was much different than the other three. Dr. Beyer had retired, and the True Heart Clinic in Sterling opened up and a new doctor came in. His name was Dr. Bloom. Well this was Pat's new doctor and he was getting very upset with Pat because she was putting on so much weight. He was always lecturing her on this, she said she was not even eating that much. Dr. Bloom threatened he would put her on bread and water if she did not watch her eating. She said Dr. Beyer was like a father he never got that upset about weight gain. In the middle of April Pat was sick so Ed took her to the doctor, and they took x-rays. Pat said she didn't get scared until they had Ed come back to the examining room. This is when they found out they were going to have twin boys. This explained the extra weight she had gained. They were supposed to be born around the first of June. On Wednesday, June 28, around midnight or later Pat was pacing around waiting for Ed to come in from the harvest field. He came in and Pat told him she needed to get to the hospital, so he took a shower and cleaned up first. While driving to the hospital, Pat told Ed he needed to hurry, and then her water broke in the car. When they got to the hospital the hospital personal came out with a wheel chair and got her and took her right to the delivery room. Richard and John where born on June 29, 1961, in the Sterling Hospital the nurse who helped deliver them was Nurse King. $135.00 was what it cost to deliver a baby that year; the doctor asked Pat if $35.00 sounded good for the second one, she thought that would be okay. Pat came home from the hospital on July 5th, she said it was the hottest day of the year. | 1 week

31: By the time John was 18 months old, he only weighed 18lbs. He was so poorly because he had a bad case of runs all of his life. Their doctor thought he might have Celiac Disease and would not live long. So Ed and Pat took him to the Grace Hospital in Hutchinson for tests. Pat stayed with him in the hospital while he was there. All they could find wrong was that Ed and Pat's water supply was bad. Their water had too high of Nitrates in it. When Pat stopped giving him that water he got better, so they started hauling water over from Helen Johannsen's house. | 18 months - this picture was taken just before he went to the hospital. | 1 year | 22 months - May 1963 | 1st Grade - 1967-68 | 6 years - 1967 | 6th Grade - 1972-73

32: Pat's babysitter... Sandy the dog was the best babysitter Pat ever had, she died at the ripe old age of 19 years. They got her when Kenny was a baby, the kids would lie on the floor to take naps and Sandy would lay right there with them. When the kids would wake up and get up Sandy would get up too. They had a fenced in yard for the kids to play in, so when they would go out to play Sandy would go with them. If the kids were doing something they were not supposed to be doing Sandy would bark. One time Pat said Sandy started barking and she came out and found 4 year old Kenny trying to climb over the fence. Another time Sandy started barking her head off and Pat came out to see what was going on, only to find Sandy barking at the sand box. Pat got to looking and there was a very large snake in it. Pat says she is deathly afraid of snakes, so she went and grabbed a hoe and went back over there, she said she was shaking so bad she did not think she was even going to be able to hit it. She did manage to kill it though. | Sandy | Cindy | Kenny | Terri | Richard & John

34: In 1966 when Richard and John were five years old they were required by law to go to Kindergarten. So they were bused to Windom for Kindergarten, Terri who was in the 2nd grade went to the Rockville School, which was two miles east and one mile north of Ed and Pat's house. It sat on the corner of Leroy Fry's property, it no longer exists. Leroy Fry had it torn down and shoved into a big hole and buried. Cindy in the 5th and Kenny in the 4th grade went to Prairie Vista School, which from the intersection of Saxman road and Plum Street was two miles east and one mile north, it sat on the corner and was still there until sometime in 2010 when it got bad enough the farmer had to tear it down. Pat said all she got done that school year was run between all three of the schools. The reason the kids all went to different schools was because the superintendent was trying to make all the parents happy. It all started when the superintendent told them that they were going to have to close some of the schools, the mothers were not very happy, so instead of closing schools they made the Rockville School where it only had the 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades, and the Prairie Vista School had the 4th, 5th and 6th grades. | The following year these schools were closed, so now all of Ed and Pat's kids were bused to Little River for school. Cindy and Kenny finished all of the rest of their schooling up at Little River. Terri, Richard and John were bused over to Windom for their 6th 7th and 8th grades, and then they went back to Little River for High School. Cindy told me that she and Kenny, and she thought Terri did this also; since there was no such thing as Kindergarten for them they had what was called Music. It was two mornings a week at the Rockville School, and Nadine Olander was Cindy's music teacher. | Schools... | Richard & John - sitting on the far right side of the picture. Kindergarten - Christmas 1966 Teacher: Mrs. Borgstrom

35: Little River High School - picture taken April 24, 2011 | Windom Grade School - picture taken April 24, 2011

36: The Old Barn... When Ed and Pat moved into their house they had an old barn that was falling down, so Ed with the help of his dad and brother Bob torn it down. The wood was in such bad shape that they could not keep any of it to use on the new cattle shed they were going to build. Ed, his dad and Bob built the new cattle shed. | The new Cattle Shed

37: The Hay Shed was built sometime in the late 1950's. In May of 1973 they added a wing onto it. | The Out House | The Shop was built by Mid-State Structures Inc. out of Hutchinson in December of 1978 | The Cattle Work Shed was built in the winter of 1980 | The Garage, before and after the new doors and siding was added to it. | The Chicken House was never used by Ed and Pat for chickens, it was used for storage. Ed even stored grain in it for one or two years.

38: The Round Top was built by Wayne Brayton and his crew in the fall of 1958. | Ed and his dad checking on the progress. | John Johannsen

39: The Grain Bins... Ed and his Dad built the grain bin in the picture to the left in 1958, which gave Pat and him two small grain bins up by the house to use. In 1976, Ed and Pat got a Government Loan to build the grain bins out south of the cattle pens. The agreement was you had to have grain in them for 10 years. They started with building two at first in June of 1976 and moving the small one in the picture to the left out there also and adding a ring to the bottom of it. Then in 1977 they built the other two bins, giving them a total of five bins out south. The four large bins each hold 3200 bushels; the small bin holds 1000 bushels. Ed only stored wheat in them. How it worked was you would take out a Federal Loan out on your grain; and you would get paid for storing it from the government it had to get to a target price before you could sell it, if it was more than the loans you had, you got the difference. You also had to haul the grain off yourself or hire someone to do it for you. | They bought this grain bin new on October 3, 1958 for $349.36. | Ed bought this 1963 - 560 International Diesel tractor new in January of 1964 | Ed & Pat unloading wheat into the bins, Ed is sitting on top of the grain bin.

40: In the 1960's Ed farmed five quarters of ground plus the Peterson quarter, he had a chance to buy it for $300.00 an acre. He chose not to buy it and the sister of Kermit Engelland bought it instead. In the 1990's Ed farmed five quarters of ground, the Ricketts 100 acres, and the Johnson 1/2 section. (The five quarters were called the family ground or the estate ground.) In the 2000's Ed was forced to sell the Ricketts ground and then he lost two more of the other quarters. This all came about because of his mother passing away and the estate being divided up among his siblings. | Second job: Ed started driving a semi-truck for Jack Edwards hauling cattle between the years of 1960 and 1970 for extra money. He only did this in the winter months. Jack had two trucks that had two drivers apiece, that way one guy could sleep while the other would be driving. Both trucks would drive to New Mexico to a ranch; where the ranchers would use horses to round up the cattle. This is when the calves would be weaned and then loaded into the trucks. They also hauled yearling calves to Cascade, Iowa to the Rider Brother's Ranch. One of the brothers was named Carl; Pat could not remember the other brother's name. | Farming... | Richard, Jacob, Josh, Pat, Chris, Ed & John July 1998

41: Ed and Pat's drive to Iowa... | Ed and Pat were invited by Carl Rider and his wife to come up to Cascade, Iowa for a visit. Pat remembers they took their brand new blue Chevy 1966 car, so she said this would have been in either 1967 or 68. So they took off, and they spent their first night a Ed's sister Shirley's apartment in Topeka. The next morning they got an early start and left like at 7:00 or 7:30am, Ed being a truck driver did not make any stops, and Pat started getting carsick. They finally made one stop in Iowa at a Mom and Pop truck stop for a very late lunch, it was like two or three in the afternoon. Pat said it was a very classy place, paper plates and plastic silverware. She didn't eat very much though, because she was not feeling very well. They finally got to Cascade, Iowa around 5:00pm. Carl and his wife knew Pat wasn't feeling very well, so they had her go lay down for a while. Two hours later they took Ed and Pat to Dubuque, Iowa to a restaurant that turned in circles. It did this because it sat on the corner of three states, Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois. Pat said she was very thankful that you could not feel it turning. It was a very good steak house. This was the last time for a long time that they went on a trip; Ed did not like Pat being sick all of the time. Pat said if he would have just stopped more and let her get out and walk around a little bit, that would have helped on this trip. Pat said he eventually figured out that if he let her drive a lot more of the times when they went places, that it helped a lot with the carsickness.

42: After they got the cattle shed done they built a fence around it, this pen was called pen number one. Then they got a milk cow. Ed was never able to milk the cow though, because he was allergic to pet dander and in order to milk a cow you had to put your face against it, and his would break all out. So Pat had to do the milking and she was pregnant at the time They had the cow for only two years and then they sold it. They had planted tree rows around their farm leaving room for future cattle pens. About the time that they had three of their children they had built a second pen, and had started to feed cattle for people. These two pens were called starter lots. The steers that they would get would be just weaned from their mothers and coming off of pasture grass. They would be around 400 to 450 pounds, when they would get to around 750 to 800 pounds they would be loaded into semi-trucks and hauled to a feedlot. In the 1970's they built the other three pens and they were still feeding cattle for people. Every now and then Pat said they would buy a pen of cattle themselves but it never paid off, because you would barely break even. | Ed and his steers - July 1962

43: Sometimes Ed would pick a steer out of the group that would be his favorite. It usually was a steer that would come up to him and want to be petted. | Ed and Curly

44: The Holsteins... | Ed had a pen of Holstein steers one year that he was feeding for Ted Harwick. One day the gate got left open somehow and the steers walked right out and they headed down the lane toward the house, and when they got to the front of the round top Ed and Pat's dog started raising cane. Pat went out to see what was going on only to find all of these steers standing there, and the dog not about to let them on her yard. So Pat and the dog spent a very long time holding them there until Ed came home. When Ed got there and they had put them away, he simply said to Pat ,"All you had to do was just push them back to their pen." Pat said it was a very hard day of work. These steers were very tame because they had been bucket calves. | Richard and John are petting a steer named "Spot". These three pictures were taken in 1974.

45: How they got started with cows and calves... | Kenny Weins drove into the yard one day; he was on his way to the Hutchinson Sale Barn with some calves that were only a few days old. While Ed was talking to Kenny, Pat was looking the calves over. She said she fell in love with them. Ed let her have two of the calves, they were little heifers. He was thinking they would only have them a short while. She thinks Ed only paid around $50.00 a piece for them, if even that. The next thing Pat had to do was go buy some milk replacer and a couple of bottles to feed them with. It wasn't long before Ed realized that Pat didn't ever want to sell them. And since he liked them just as much as she did, he bought seven or more heifers to go with them. When they got old enough they were to be loaded in the stock trailer and hauled over to Helen's pasture. That sounded simple enough, but the heifers did not want any part of the trailer. After some doing they finally got them loaded and hauled to the pasture. The next summer they had them bred by a bull they borrowed from Howard Zwick. They gradually over the next years worked out of having steers as they got more cows and calves. | Some of the pasture ground Ed and Pat had was Jack Bleger's quarter, Stoberg's quarter, Brothers section, Jolene's two 80's, Cecil Miller's 50 acres, Pat and Nancy Hays quarter, Helen's 40 acres, Seizer's 40 or 50 acres, and Ed's two little pastures. This if just some of the pastures he had at one time or another. Ed would run anywhere from 150 to 200 steers on grass. Karl Otto would buy these steers for him. In the fall they sometimes would be sold off grass or he would have to haul them home, before they would be sold and put into the lots and fed for awhile. Ed liked it best if they would be sold off of grass. | This is one of Pat's calves, that is now a cow.

46: The Kids Remember... | I carved this stone, when the boys and I used to play in the tree row that was 1/4 mile west of the house. - Terri | We used to throw cow patties at the Shetland Pony Joe. - Cindy | There was an old Pig A-frame out north of the house and Terri and I would have our pots and pans out there playing and the boys would be out there playing with their tractors. - Cindy | Richard and I played football with Smoke. And another time we gave Smoke's tail a flat top, Dad was not very happy with us. - John | I remember Aunt Shirley and Mom made me Barbie clothes out of scrapes of material they had. - Terri | I remember when Smoke would pop his head up over the side of the feed bunk and scare the cattle when Dad was feeding them. - John

47: Richard, John and I saw a rat in the round top and we started throwing clods at it. It got backed up in a corner and stood on its hind legs and started hissing at us. It did not like the mud clods at all. I took off running thinking it was going to chase after me, I ran all the way up to my bedroom and peeked out the window to see if it was out there waiting for me. - Terri | This happened on a Monday night, because it was a 4H night. Kenny had made a sloped ramp in the ditch for his motorcycle. He came off of the highway into the ditch and missed his sloped ramp and hit the straight edge of the ditch, came down on the front tire it drove him into the ground with the bike on top of him. Kenny told me he broke his neck. So I went and told Cindy, then we had to call Grandma J. - Richard | We did Roller Derby on our bicycles between here and Grandma's house on the highway. It would be two against two. - Richard | John had a bad temper and when we would call him a little monster he would chase us around the fenced in yard. - Cindy

48: Cindy... | Cindy became the bride of Michael Wayne Foskett on Saturday, October 18, 1980 at the United Presbyterian Church in Saxman. They divorced in 1985 | Senior Year - 1973-74 Little River High School Little River, KS | Cindy's first full time job was waiting tables at a Truck Stop in Lyons. After that she had many cooking and waitress jobs before becoming Assistant to the chef at Panganica County Club. She then went to work for the American Salt Plant in Lyons, she worked there about a year and a half and then moved to Hutchinson and became the first woman to work on the mine side of Cary Salt. In 1979 went back to American Salt in Lyons and worked there for the next twenty eight years, eighteen of them underground working all the various jobs there. Drilling, undercutting, powder, shuttle cars and crusher and gathering arm loaders. In March 2007 she retired from the salt plant and now lives in Andover where she keeps house and likes making jewelry. She is also very involved in her Sweet Adeline's Quartet and Chorus and loves it. | Christopher Michael Foskett Born: October 17, 1981 | Chris - 3 1/2 yrs. - June 1985 | Cindy married David Richardson on Saturday, December 5, 1987 at the First Baptist Church in Lyons They divorced in 2001

49: Cindy became the bride of Wayne Clair Duggan on Saturday, October 14, 2006 The wedding was at her parent's farm. | Cindy's Sweet Adeline's Quartet Wayne is Santa Claus | Cindy, Pat and Wayne at competition in Kansas City in March of 2011 | Emerald City Chorus - Region 7 - Overland Park, KS March 2011 | Wayne & Cindy April 2011 | Cindy & Chris - April 2011

50: Senior year - 1974-75 Little River High School Little River, KS | After graduating from High School, Kenny worked a lot of different jobs. In 1977 he signed up and was in the Army Reserves for eight years before he went on active duty in 1985. He was stationed at Ft. Lewis in Washington state for 3 1/2 years, and then in Korea for 1 1/2 years. He was trained in jumping at Ft. Benning, GA for the 82nd Airborne Division. Prior to deploying to Saudi Arabia he was stationed at Ft. Bragg, NC. He deployed to Saudi Arabia in operation Desert Shield - September 1, 1990, and then was in Operation Desert Storm for 7 1/2 months. In 1992 he was assigned to the 6th Infantry Division, Ft. Richardson, in Anchorage, Alaska. He got a medical discharge from the Army when he was injured in a bad jump. He nows lives in Rice County, KS and farms. | Kenny raced motorcycles | High School Graduation | Kenny...

51: Kenny married Jennifer Grimm Saturday, August 10, 1991 They divorced sometime in the 1990's | Picture was taken for his Combat Leaders course June 1989 | Kenny married Frances Champain Saturday, July 9, 2005 The wedding was at their farm south of Little River. | Frances Johannsen - 2011 | This picture was taken June 9, 2010 | Kenny - June 27, 2009

52: Terri... | After High School Terri attended Hutchinson Community College and graduated in May of 1980 with a 2 year degree in Child Development. She worked at the Pizza Hut in Lyons in High School and summers from College. After graduating from college she had an opportunity to work at Day Cares, but they didn't pay enough, so she went home and in August of 1980 got a job in Lyons at Sears. She worked for Gary Connery for six years, and in 1986 Claudette Thompson and her bought the store form Gary and ran it for almost four years. In November of 1989 she got out of Sears, and in January of 1990 started her own Day Care business. Terri also loves running in 5K races. | Senior year - 1977-78 Little River High School Little River, KS | Ruby Halbert, Rhonda Casey, Julie Holler, Kimberly Cory & Terri Johannsen | Go Redskins!!! | Terri & Josh ran a 5K together in Lindsborg's Midsummer's Day Festival June 18, 2011

53: Terri with her day care kids May 12, 2011 | St. Patrick's Run 2011 Shawnna Bieberle, Susan Wempe holding her grandson Xander & Terri Johannsen (Terri ran the 5K in 30 minutes and 20 seconds the run was in Hutchinson, Ks.) | This bulletin board has twenty one year's worth of Terri's day care kid's birthdays on it. | Terri & Pat Relay for Life Lyons, Ks June 10, 2011 | Terri standing next to her new day care sign, it was made by Dennis Bowersock. It was put up on June 23, 2011.

54: Richard... | Richard married Laura Adwell Saturday, August 6, 1983 United Presbyterian Church, Saxman, KS | Senior year - 1978-79 Little River High School Little River, KS | Richard worked for Knights farm one summer in high school, and before going to college he worked at Stroberg's in Hutchinson. He went to Fort Hays State University for three years for Industrial Education. Then a week after he was married in 1983, he got a job working for Collingwood in Conway. They put fertilizer down on farm ground. In March of 1986 he got a job working for NCRA in McPherson, it is a oil refinery. He worked in the Feed Unit on shift work from April of 1986 to December of 1996. Since January of 1997 he has been working in the Welding Department, and is the Leadermen in that shop. | Jacob William Johannsen Born: February 26, 1992 | Joshua Edward Johannsen Born: October 12, 1993

56: John... | John & Julie July 1978 | John married Julie McGuire Saturday, September 15, 1979 United Presbyterian Church in Saxman, KS | Senior year - 1978-79 Little River High School Little River, KS | After High School John was living in Little River and attending Hutchinson Community College for Diesel Mechanics, he did this for one year. He then moved to Lyons and worked for John Deere for about a year. Then he moved to Dorset, TX and worked for Texas Oil and Gas for about six years. He moved again to Oklahoma City and worked for Bill Eisenhower for about two years managing a cattle ranch. In 1987 he moved back to Lyons and worked for Knight Feedlot for five months. He then got a job at MidWest Industries in McPherson and moved there in 1988. In November of 2011 he will have been a machinist at MidWest for twenty four years. | Michelle Ann Johannsen Born: March 29, 1980 | 1997 - 17 years old

58: Keeping their sanity through the teenage years... | Pat said that when all five of the kids were teenagers together, she took up toll painting and water colors. It calmed her nerves and she got to leave the house to go paint. She called it her sanity pills. Later in the 1980's or 90's she started quilting. And now she belongs to a quilting guild in Lyons. Ed's out was going to the John Deere in Lyons and visiting for two or three hours. He also loved watching western movies, especially John Wayne movies. | Ed - 71 years - 2007 | A water color painting Pat did for Richard's family. | A quilt Pat made to raise money for breast cancer. 2011 | Pat got her Tin Lizzie Quilting machine in 2010.

59: Rice County Rural Water District #1 | Richard said that his Dad and him had gone into the Little River Cafe to eat lunch when Jack Wempe came in and asked if he could sit with them. Jack asked Ed if he was still interested in a water district. This would have been in the late 1980's sometime. Jack Wempe at the time was the director of the Rice County Economic Development Corporation (Ricedco).Well the next thing they did was to bring in a lawyer and a Geologist. The geologist was hired to do a feasibility study to see if the water district would be able to pay the loan back. The Geologist told them if this water district was going to pay for itself they needed to have at least 35 paying customers. With word of mouth and a lot of phone calls 35 people showed up at their first meeting, Ed was thrilled to death with the turn out. In the beginning as interest built you had to pay $450.00 and had to sign a paper giving easement rights to the water district, having no guarantee there was even going to be a water district. When the water district got started the amount was raised to $700.00. Ed talked to Senator Bob Dole about getting a Federal Loan, he was told they would not be able to have the money this year, but would have it the next year. Pat said Ed carried a brief case in his pickup with all of the paper work in it all of the time, so when he would meet someone he could tell them all about the water district. After five years of planning finally on Friday, April 8, 1994 they had the ground breaking ceremony southeast of Lyons. Ed served as President of the water district for six years. On Wednesday, June 9, 2010 the water district celebrated the opening of its new Little River office with an open house and a dedication ceremony. | Ed Johannsen, Don Zwick, Jack Wempe & Kenny Weins | Kenny, Richard, Terri, Cindy, Pat & John - June 9, 2010 Dedication ceremony | This is the plaque honoring Ed for all of his work with the water district.

60: Some of the pets from over the years... | Pat told me the kids did not like ponies as much as she did, so they did not have a a lot to do with him. Joe the pony liked apples and the color red, if you had a red hankie he would take it. She told me one time Joe tried to eat the hair of a red headed boy. Pat said her horse Sugar Babe was a good horse; he was trained to rope off of and to cut cattle with. She said all she had to do was learn how to stay on him. | Kenny, Cindy & Sandy the dog | Smoke | Terri & Lori | Cindy, Kenny, Richard, Terri, John & Boots | Joe & Sugar Babe | Boots | Michelle & Itty Bitty | Spud | Jason, Chris, Jessica & Snoopy

61: Combines... | Ed & Pat bought the 55 combine brand new on October 9, 1957; they had it for 15 years and then sold it. Then on November 1, 1972 they bought the 95 combine used. There was a few years that they leased combines.The 95 and the 6600 at one time were owned by Ted Hardwick. | Leased International 815 | John Deere 95 | John Deere 55 | John Deere 6600 | Leased John Deere 9600 Richard, Jacob, Josh, Chris, Ed & John - July 1998 | Pat with the 1982 John Deere 7720 - April 2009 | Ed

62: Tractors... | 1967 John Deere 4020 - February 1977 | 1981 John Deere 4440 - April 2009 | John Deere 4430 | 1952 8N Ford bought November 28, 1959 with loader for $1,361.71 Pat & Chris | Richard said he was out of high school when this happened. He said Dad was driving the 4020 from their house over to Helen's, he thinks to go get a bale of hay. When all of a sudden the tractor started swerving on the road and then started for the ditch. He found out from his Dad that he had the windows open and that a bull snake was climbing down from the air conditioner or water cooler that was on top of the cab and was hanging by the open window. They think while the tractor was parked in the hay shed that the snake had crawled on and thought he had found a new home. | 1950 Farmall Super M | 1975 John Deere 4320 bought new on December 10, 1975 | 1963 John Deere 4010 bought March 23, 1973 | 9 foot dozer blade bought October 10, 1974 | 1969 John Deere 3020 bought new on October 27, 1969 | 1990 John Deere 4555 picture taken in 1990 | John Deere 4630 - picture taken November 1985

66: The Grandchildren... | Michelle Johannsen | Chris Foskett | Jennifer Johannsen | Jacob Johannsen | Joshua Johannsen | Michelle graduated from Little River High School on May 17, 1998 and since then has been living in Amarillo, Texas. She works for AIG Annuity Insurance Company in Amarillo, TX. | Chris graduated from Lyons High School on May 21, 2000. He worked for his grandfather on the farm through high school and the first year of college at K- State. He worked at Sykes doing over the phone tech support for IBM Computers his second year of college. In 2002 he went to work for Jon Murdock Auto Mall in Manhattan as a Car Salesman. He worked there until November 2004, then that same month he started at Sprint. He was promoted to Store Manager in October 2007. And in February of 2011 he has enrolled in DeVry online to complete his degree. He is currently living in Manhattan, KS. | Jennifer is currently working as an Assistant Manager at a Pizza Hut in Wichita, KS. | Jacob graduated from Smoky Valley High School on May 15, 2010. And has finished his first year at Bethany College in Lindsborg. This summer he is working at NCRA in the Warehouse. During high school he worked for Scott's Thriftway and the City of Lindsborg. | Josh will be a senior this year at Smoky Valley High School, and will be graduating in May of 2012. For summer jobs this year he is working for Lee & Susie Ruggels and Greg & Susan Lundstrom. He has enlisted in the Marines and will be leaving for bootcamp in San Diego, California in June of 2012.